Let's see.. JAVA WORLD does an "objective" comparison of J2ME vs..NET-CF and declares that "J2ME is the hands-down winner". Somehow I'm not surprised...
And I hereby sue for false advertising - the article has nothing to do with games, dammit.
There is the old discussion about if Linux is truly cheaper to operate in the long run. Is Linux a legitimate solution to school districts facing a financial crunch
Linux is perfect for a local school district.. Schools have the benefit of free student labor, and they don't have to worry about deadlines or downtime. Linux on cheap hardware is perfect for this kind of environment.
We had an intern who wrote a bunch of stuff in Python and Ruby. He was all gung-ho on those languages and made a big deal about how they were "it". When he left, no one had the time to learn how to support these languages, so we ended up re-writing them in Perl so that everyone could support them.
There's an easy way to avoid this situation... I had a consultant with basically the same attitude - in this case it was that VB was a toy and that it was C++ or nothing. I showed him the door, hired somebody without an attitude, and got the project done without any support headaches.
it's game over for Linux on the desktop. Xandros is $100. LindowsOS is $130. Hardly anyone would be willing to switch to Linux, when for just $20-$50 more, they can buy the latest and greatest version of Windows
The OEM version of Windows that is preinstalled by Dell, Compaq, etc on new computers goes for around $50. There are people who use Linux on their desktops, but they're definitely paying for that priveledge in time & effort. For me, it's well worth the $50 not to have to deal with all of the driver problems, compatiblity issues, and other headaches that come with running Linux on my desktop computer. I swear if one more install package screws up my ld.so.conf file on my server I'm going to kill somebody.
So... in this macho atmosphere, reeking of testosterone... the punishment for not being that the bug meet is that... YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIX YOUR BUGS UNTIL THE NEXT MAJOR RELEASE?????????
The NEW FEATURE that the group was working on gets moved to the next release.
but I'm still curious as to how to go about returning copies of proprietary computer programs sold at retail...Do I have a chance in small-claims court against Best Buy for breach of contract?
IANAL either, but I think it would be more likely that you would have a case against the software manufacturer. One of the things that ProCD v. Zeidenberg states is that the click-through license is legal because it gives the end-user the chance to cancel the contract by returning the software. If you can't return the software and the manufacturer won't take it back, I think you would have a very good case for invalidating the entire EULA. There is another overriding issue with the OEM versions however. Dell, Compaq/HP, Toshiba and others say that the OEM software is not sold separately from the hardware. You can't get a refund on the OS any more than you could on the CPU or the IDE cables. If you don't agree to the EULA and want a refund, you can get it by returning both the hardware and software for a full refund, less shipping charges. I couldn't find any major cases that had anything to do with the legality of this position - maybe it's one of those "gray areas" that has yet to be challenged. This guy got laughed out of small claims court though.
...how was I holding my Windows ME operating environment re-installation disc, provided by Dell, in my hand one minute ago
Things used to be different. With new systems and XP, all they provide is a recovery CD. The Windows XP.CAB files are probably in there somewhere, but it won't work if you try to install it on another computer.
Commercial software from the shelf of Best Buy is different because the initial contract you create when you pay for the package is between you and Best Buy, not between you and Microsoft
In ProCD v. Zeidenberg, a case referenced in Sprecht v. Netscape, the decision reads "Transactions in which the exchange of money precedes the communication of detailed terms are common...A vendor, as master of the offer, may invite acceptance by conduct, and may propose limitations on the kind of conduct that constitutes acceptance....ProCD extended an opportunity to reject if a buyer should find the license terms unsatisfactory; Zeidenberg inspected the package, tried out the software, learned of the license, and did not reject the goods."
In addition, in this case there was no exchange of software. The OEM version of Windows XP does not include the media required to install the software on another computer, only a "recovery disk" which can be used to restore the Dell machine to its factory state. The seller did not transfer this CD to the buyer, as required by copyright law, and the buyer would have needed to use a different version of XP (the non-OEM version) to install the software on another computer - one which requires a different license than the one he purchased.
The only way Microsoft could have a remote chance to make a EULA binding would be...
Click-through EULA's have been found to be entirely enforcable - see Specht v. Netscape/AOL. In this case, the license was found to be unenforcable, but only because the user didn't have to click on "I agree" or something similar before installing the software. The decision says "The primary purpose of downloading is to
obtain a product, not to assent to an agreement. In contrast, clicking on an icon stating "I assent" has no
meaning or purpose other than to indicate such assent. Netscape's failure to require users of
SmartDownload to indicate assent to its license as a precondition to downloading and using its software
is fatal to its argument that a contract has been formed." Also see Register.COM v. Verio, Inc. where a "by submitting a query, you agree to the terms of this license" clause was found enforcable. In the case of the Windows XP license, you have to click the "I Agree" button before installing, making whatever terms are in the EULA enforceable according to either of these decisions.
How can Microsoft enforce this? Is it even a binding contract? In a binding contract, both sides have to give something up.
OEM versions are much cheaper than retail versions. In return for giving up rights, including the right to transfer the software to another computer, the user gets a substantial discount on the software. In the statue that you referenced, it says: "Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner." The license pretty clearly states that that authorization is not granted. It's really not that big a deal since the chances of Microsoft finding out (or caring) are slim, but then again if you're going to be illegal anyway, why not just run a pirated version and save yourself the $50.
If the seller didn't agree to the EULA, why does it matter what the EULA says? It doesn't.
It doesn't matter at all to the seller - the buyer is the one with the problem. The license is valid on the machine that it was sold with, and no other.
The RIAA is not involved in this particular lawsuit. The plantiffs are Paramount/UPN, Disney/ABC, NBC, and Viacom/CBS. The article is comparing this new action against individual users to the ones brought in the past by the RIAA against music sharers.
Therefore I did not agree to the terms of the license that you mentioned above
I think you're fine - it's your coworker who paid $50 for a license that is only valid on your computer. If he actually wanted to pay for an XP license, he might as well have payed for one that was legit...
So, I resold the license to a guy at work for $50. (There was no real OS CD, just a recovery disk. However, he had one already, so I just sold him a license).
You might want to re-read that EULA. OEM licenses are not only not for resale, they're tied to the hardware. It doesn't matter if you booted it or not - your co-worker did, and he's running an unlicensed copy. It sounds like you got the better of the deal.:)
"Software as a Component of the Computer - Transfer. THIS LICENSE MAY NOT BE SHARED, TRANSFERRED TO OR USED CONCURRENTLY ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. The SOFTWARE is licensed with the HARDWARE as a single integrated product and may only be used with the HARDWARE. If the SOFTWARE is not accompanied by new HARDWARE, you may not use the SOFTWARE."
Here is something odd. As people have been posting links I have been eagerly following them. I am noticing a disturbing trend. Every link has led to a place that had laptops on average $500 to $1000 more than the same laptop from a major vendor with windows on it.
It's not odd at all.. The major manufacturers make money by selling large quantities with low margins. They put Windows on there because that's what >90% of the people buying systems want. The smaller companies selling custom setups or Linux installations don't do nearly the volume, so they need to have higher margins. Yes, there's a "Windows Tax", but it's more than offset by using a mass-produced configuration. If you're more interested in saving money than you are in making sure that Microsoft doesn't get your $50, you're probably better off licensing Windows and wiping the hard drive.
In fact, earth has not been hit by an asteroid in at least several hundred thousand years. Why do people suddenly feel protection is urgent now?
Tell that to the Russians... The last major impact was less than 100 years ago, and released about the same energy as a 10 megaton nuclear weapon. It wasn't nearly enough to cause any kind of extinction, but I sure would want to be able to push one of those off course if it was headed towards a populated area.
We've got several Dells with RAID drives, 4 CPUs, never a linux crash (ala BSOD), but we get on average 1 major hardware crash every year on EACH machine due to hardware going south.
That's very strange. We've been running on up to 40 Compaq servers for the last six years, and the worst thing that has happened was the very smoky failure of a cooling fan. This forced us to shut the server down, but Compaq had a replacement part to us within 2 hours. Newer models have redundant fans. We've also had a couple of hard drives and a DLT drive go bad, but there was no impact on production because of RAID. None of the servers that we have purchased in the last three years has had a problem yet. One major failure per server per year is not normal.
I have a $200 sony all in one remote that tries to provide a single interface to all my stuff. Problem is that it does not quite cut it, the Onkyo receiver does not quite do what it should.
Try this. I have everything programmed into one $30 Radio Shack remote, including an Onkyo receiver. It takes a little work, but it's definitely worth the effort.
Those of us who dislike government monopolies are left hoping either News or GE wins this one (if a sale even takes place)." One of the other suitors for DirecTV has been Murdoch's Fox.
I sure hope that Fox gets it, because I can't imagine the horror of News Corp running things.
But how do people get on the spam-lists to begin with? I mean, I have one email address for work and one private. Neither one of these gets more than one spam/month. Ever.
If you email address is simple (e.g. first initial+last name+some number) and your domain name is that of a public ISP, then there's an excellent chance that the spammers will find you regardless of whether or not you ever use the address. Email addresses at work tend to be safer because spammers usually don't bother guessing at addresses in domains with so few valid mailboxes.
Memory usage is definitely a problem under Windows. My company was looking at deploying a Java-based product to our users via our Citrix server, but it turned out that each instance of the application took over 90mb of memory just to load up. We ended up using a similar product written mostly in VB that uses less than 20mb per user and runs noticably faster.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's see.. JAVA WORLD does an "objective" comparison of J2ME vs. .NET-CF and declares that "J2ME is the hands-down winner". Somehow I'm not surprised...
And I hereby sue for false advertising - the article has nothing to do with games, dammit.
There is the old discussion about if Linux is truly cheaper to operate in the long run. Is Linux a legitimate solution to school districts facing a financial crunch
Linux is perfect for a local school district.. Schools have the benefit of free student labor, and they don't have to worry about deadlines or downtime. Linux on cheap hardware is perfect for this kind of environment.
We had an intern who wrote a bunch of stuff in Python and Ruby. He was all gung-ho on those languages and made a big deal about how they were "it". When he left, no one had the time to learn how to support these languages, so we ended up re-writing them in Perl so that everyone could support them.
There's an easy way to avoid this situation... I had a consultant with basically the same attitude - in this case it was that VB was a toy and that it was C++ or nothing. I showed him the door, hired somebody without an attitude, and got the project done without any support headaches.
Why does the image exceed 1920x1080? Isn't the highest HDTV resolution 1080p?
The highest resolution is 1080i, which runs at 1920x1080, interlaced. The GNU project threw in an extra 750 horizontal pixels for free (as in beer).
it's game over for Linux on the desktop. Xandros is $100. LindowsOS is $130. Hardly anyone would be willing to switch to Linux, when for just $20-$50 more, they can buy the latest and greatest version of Windows
The OEM version of Windows that is preinstalled by Dell, Compaq, etc on new computers goes for around $50. There are people who use Linux on their desktops, but they're definitely paying for that priveledge in time & effort. For me, it's well worth the $50 not to have to deal with all of the driver problems, compatiblity issues, and other headaches that come with running Linux on my desktop computer. I swear if one more install package screws up my ld.so.conf file on my server I'm going to kill somebody.
If your battery backup goes bad, the data is gone and nobody can get it back for you at any price.
Restoring from the previous night's backup usually works pretty well...
So... in this macho atmosphere, reeking of testosterone... the punishment for not being that the bug meet is that... YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIX YOUR BUGS UNTIL THE NEXT MAJOR RELEASE?????????
The NEW FEATURE that the group was working on gets moved to the next release.
but I'm still curious as to how to go about returning copies of proprietary computer programs sold at retail...Do I have a chance in small-claims court against Best Buy for breach of contract?
...how was I holding my Windows ME operating environment re-installation disc, provided by Dell, in my hand one minute ago
.CAB files are probably in there somewhere, but it won't work if you try to install it on another computer.
IANAL either, but I think it would be more likely that you would have a case against the software manufacturer. One of the things that ProCD v. Zeidenberg states is that the click-through license is legal because it gives the end-user the chance to cancel the contract by returning the software. If you can't return the software and the manufacturer won't take it back, I think you would have a very good case for invalidating the entire EULA. There is another overriding issue with the OEM versions however. Dell, Compaq/HP, Toshiba and others say that the OEM software is not sold separately from the hardware. You can't get a refund on the OS any more than you could on the CPU or the IDE cables. If you don't agree to the EULA and want a refund, you can get it by returning both the hardware and software for a full refund, less shipping charges. I couldn't find any major cases that had anything to do with the legality of this position - maybe it's one of those "gray areas" that has yet to be challenged. This guy got laughed out of small claims court though.
Things used to be different. With new systems and XP, all they provide is a recovery CD. The Windows XP
Commercial software from the shelf of Best Buy is different because the initial contract you create when you pay for the package is between you and Best Buy, not between you and Microsoft
In ProCD v. Zeidenberg, a case referenced in Sprecht v. Netscape, the decision reads "Transactions in which the exchange of money precedes the communication of detailed terms are common...A vendor, as master of the offer, may invite acceptance by conduct, and may propose limitations on the kind of conduct that constitutes acceptance....ProCD extended an opportunity to reject if a buyer should find the license terms unsatisfactory; Zeidenberg inspected the package, tried out the software, learned of the license, and did not reject the goods."
In addition, in this case there was no exchange of software. The OEM version of Windows XP does not include the media required to install the software on another computer, only a "recovery disk" which can be used to restore the Dell machine to its factory state. The seller did not transfer this CD to the buyer, as required by copyright law, and the buyer would have needed to use a different version of XP (the non-OEM version) to install the software on another computer - one which requires a different license than the one he purchased.
The only way Microsoft could have a remote chance to make a EULA binding would be...
Click-through EULA's have been found to be entirely enforcable - see Specht v. Netscape/AOL. In this case, the license was found to be unenforcable, but only because the user didn't have to click on "I agree" or something similar before installing the software. The decision says "The primary purpose of downloading is to obtain a product, not to assent to an agreement. In contrast, clicking on an icon stating "I assent" has no meaning or purpose other than to indicate such assent. Netscape's failure to require users of SmartDownload to indicate assent to its license as a precondition to downloading and using its software is fatal to its argument that a contract has been formed." Also see Register.COM v. Verio, Inc. where a "by submitting a query, you agree to the terms of this license" clause was found enforcable. In the case of the Windows XP license, you have to click the "I Agree" button before installing, making whatever terms are in the EULA enforceable according to either of these decisions.
this report says 5 million cards
Some of them were gold and platinum cards, so you have to count them more than once.
How can Microsoft enforce this? Is it even a binding contract? In a binding contract, both sides have to give something up.
OEM versions are much cheaper than retail versions. In return for giving up rights, including the right to transfer the software to another computer, the user gets a substantial discount on the software. In the statue that you referenced, it says: "Any exact copies prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section may be leased, sold, or otherwise transferred, along with the copy from which such copies were prepared, only as part of the lease, sale, or other transfer of all rights in the program. Adaptations so prepared may be transferred only with the authorization of the copyright owner." The license pretty clearly states that that authorization is not granted. It's really not that big a deal since the chances of Microsoft finding out (or caring) are slim, but then again if you're going to be illegal anyway, why not just run a pirated version and save yourself the $50.
If the seller didn't agree to the EULA, why does it matter what the EULA says? It doesn't.
It doesn't matter at all to the seller - the buyer is the one with the problem. The license is valid on the machine that it was sold with, and no other.
Why is the poster being sued by the RIAA?
The RIAA is not involved in this particular lawsuit. The plantiffs are Paramount/UPN, Disney/ABC, NBC, and Viacom/CBS. The article is comparing this new action against individual users to the ones brought in the past by the RIAA against music sharers.
Therefore I did not agree to the terms of the license that you mentioned above
I think you're fine - it's your coworker who paid $50 for a license that is only valid on your computer. If he actually wanted to pay for an XP license, he might as well have payed for one that was legit...
So, I resold the license to a guy at work for $50. (There was no real OS CD, just a recovery disk. However, he had one already, so I just sold him a license).
:)
You might want to re-read that EULA. OEM licenses are not only not for resale, they're tied to the hardware. It doesn't matter if you booted it or not - your co-worker did, and he's running an unlicensed copy. It sounds like you got the better of the deal.
"Software as a Component of the Computer - Transfer. THIS LICENSE MAY NOT BE SHARED, TRANSFERRED TO OR USED CONCURRENTLY ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. The SOFTWARE is licensed with the HARDWARE as a single integrated product and may only be used with the HARDWARE. If the SOFTWARE is not accompanied by new HARDWARE, you may not use the SOFTWARE."
Here is something odd. As people have been posting links I have been eagerly following them. I am noticing a disturbing trend. Every link has led to a place that had laptops on average $500 to $1000 more than the same laptop from a major vendor with windows on it.
It's not odd at all.. The major manufacturers make money by selling large quantities with low margins. They put Windows on there because that's what >90% of the people buying systems want. The smaller companies selling custom setups or Linux installations don't do nearly the volume, so they need to have higher margins. Yes, there's a "Windows Tax", but it's more than offset by using a mass-produced configuration. If you're more interested in saving money than you are in making sure that Microsoft doesn't get your $50, you're probably better off licensing Windows and wiping the hard drive.
In fact, earth has not been hit by an asteroid in at least several hundred thousand years. Why do people suddenly feel protection is urgent now?
Tell that to the Russians... The last major impact was less than 100 years ago, and released about the same energy as a 10 megaton nuclear weapon. It wasn't nearly enough to cause any kind of extinction, but I sure would want to be able to push one of those off course if it was headed towards a populated area.
We've got several Dells with RAID drives, 4 CPUs, never a linux crash (ala BSOD), but we get on average 1 major hardware crash every year on EACH machine due to hardware going south.
That's very strange. We've been running on up to 40 Compaq servers for the last six years, and the worst thing that has happened was the very smoky failure of a cooling fan. This forced us to shut the server down, but Compaq had a replacement part to us within 2 hours. Newer models have redundant fans. We've also had a couple of hard drives and a DLT drive go bad, but there was no impact on production because of RAID. None of the servers that we have purchased in the last three years has had a problem yet. One major failure per server per year is not normal.
I have a $200 sony all in one remote that tries to provide a single interface to all my stuff. Problem is that it does not quite cut it, the Onkyo receiver does not quite do what it should.
Try this. I have everything programmed into one $30 Radio Shack remote, including an Onkyo receiver. It takes a little work, but it's definitely worth the effort.
Unfortunately, Slashdot is about the last place to go looking for prior art for this one...
Those of us who dislike government monopolies are left hoping either News or GE wins this one (if a sale even takes place)." One of the other suitors for DirecTV has been Murdoch's Fox.
I sure hope that Fox gets it, because I can't imagine the horror of News Corp running things.
But how do people get on the spam-lists to begin with? I mean, I have one email address for work and one private. Neither one of these gets more than one spam/month. Ever.
If you email address is simple (e.g. first initial+last name+some number) and your domain name is that of a public ISP, then there's an excellent chance that the spammers will find you regardless of whether or not you ever use the address. Email addresses at work tend to be safer because spammers usually don't bother guessing at addresses in domains with so few valid mailboxes.
Memory usage is definitely a problem under Windows. My company was looking at deploying a Java-based product to our users via our Citrix server, but it turned out that each instance of the application took over 90mb of memory just to load up. We ended up using a similar product written mostly in VB that uses less than 20mb per user and runs noticably faster.
Why don't they just tax the tax revenue? There'd be a recursive loop and money FOREVER!
New York already does this on certain kinds of car lease payments... No joke.